Chapter 67: They are all my very good friends!
Chapter 67: They are all my very good friends! (Please read on, thank you!)
Kitagawa Hide was really frightened by this sudden incident.
After saying this, Kawaide Shizuko stood up and respectfully returned the manuscript to Kitagawa Hide, her eyes behind her black round-frame glasses full of anticipation.
Are you really not my crazy fan?
Kitagawa Hide was confused again.
But thinking about it, it still seems unlikely.
Because this gave him the illusion that "the top 100 wealthiest people in their country love to read online articles."
"Um, President Kawaide, are you sure you will publish 'No Longer Human'?" To be on the safe side, Kitagawa Hide briefly told her the general idea of the book and the possible subsequent turmoil that might arise from using Takuya Iwasui's life as a template.
After listening to this, Kawaide Shizuko nodded slightly and said seriously: "I will definitely let Kawaide Shobo publish No Longer Human, and it will be a hardcover paperback edition."
Another hardcover paperback edition?!
This is too much confidence in his ability to make money!
But think about it, it is true that in this way, we can also append Takuya Yanjing's suicide note and a lot of information about their family.
Otherwise, after the funeral, Yan Jingtuo and his family would have disappeared into the long river of history.
They should not be easily forgotten.
The Aum Shinrikyo cult that killed them should not get away with it so easily.
"It's a pleasure to work with you?" Kitagawa Hide hesitated for a moment, but still extended his hand.
Shizuko Kawaide generously extended her right hand and shook his hand. Suddenly, a beautiful smile appeared on her face: "It's a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Kitagawa!"
She actually looks very beautiful when she smiles, but due to her age and the need to maintain her dignity in the company, Shizuko Kawaide basically does not show any emotions in front of others.
Kitagawa Hideya smiled. He felt that he would enjoy tonight’s dinner very much. It would probably be the most comfortable luxurious meal he had ever had since traveling through time!
Time flies and it’s the weekend.
After finishing the negotiations with Shizuko Kawaide about the publication and sale of "No Longer Human" at Sakurahiwa Izakaya, Kitagawa Hide returned home and began to retreat.
Since the other party's attitude is sincere and I have promised him to publish a masterpiece that will be in the top ten of the annual sales ranking, I can no longer live my life leisurely.
During the days of seclusion, Kitagawa Hide turned a deaf ear to the outside world and focused on writing a hit book. He never went to Kodansha again and concentrated on polishing "No Longer Human" into a masterpiece that suits this era.
During this period, because Kitagawa Hide did not go to Kodansha that day, Noma Airi asked people to call the apartment several times, but he hung up at the speed of light.
Perhaps they finally realized that something was wrong, and the orders from the top were passed down layer by layer, finally falling on Saito Rena's head.
Saito Reina called once, but the first thing she did was to ask if Kitagawa Hide was sick or in a bad mental state.
She had always been worried that Kitagawa Hide would be affected by the death of Takuya Yan'ai's family, and Kitagawa Hide had a history of suicide, so she was worried but did not dare to visit him rashly.
Even for the sake of his health, Saito Rena advised him not to think about the new book for the time being, just to rest and recuperate, and she would bear the pressure alone.
Although Rena Saito did not mention the demands of Kodansha and the top management throughout the process, Kitagawa Hide could hear that the top management must have put pressure on her to act as a lobbyist to persuade Kitagawa Hide, but she did not do so.
Not even a word of it.
Kitagawa Hide knew that he had not misjudged the person, and was also very disappointed with what Kodansha had done to him and Saito Rena so far, so he asked her to relax and wait for the interview at the funeral.
What happened in the past few days also made him more determined to "take the ball" and run to He Chu's study.
Up to now, he has never met the senior executive of Kodansha, Executive Director Noma Airi, in person!
But this is He De Shu Fang, and even the acting president, the second-in-command, personally invited him to dinner!
Kitagawa Hide can now understand a little bit of what Kong Ming felt when he visited Zhuge Liang three times at his thatched cottage.
Regardless of whether Emperor Liu was pretending or being sincere, his attitude was indeed on point.
Another thing is the haiku wave caused by "Tanka of the Thunder God". The name of the Haiku Master of the University of Tokyo spread to various universities in Tokyo, and the Haiku Research Group of the University of Tokyo suddenly changed from an ignored club to a large club that everyone wanted to join.
Captain Kobayashi successfully withstood the pressure, and Kawaide Shizuko strictly prohibited any outsiders from disturbing the Haiku Master's practice at the University of Tokyo on the Internet. Even after so long, no one knows who the Haiku Master is.
The members of the school group were also excluding each other one by one. Anyway, the first and second ones to be excluded were Agatsuma Yumeko and Jabami Rei who had just joined.
Jabami Rei really liked this poem "Tanka of the Thunder God", but the band leader Kobayashi said that he wanted to protect the personal privacy of the band members. She didn't know who the haiku master was who wrote the love poem that touched her heart, so she had to hold the "Tanka of the Thunder God" copied in a notebook every day and recite a few lines to Agatsuma Yumeko whenever she had time.
The resurgence of haiku has led to the establishment of many haiku-related clubs at many universities, and even professors in the Faculty of Literature have gradually begun to pay attention to this haiku.
But the heat is almost over here.
Who made "Thor's Ballad" and "Youth Trilogy" literary works based on love? In the eyes of those "elegant scholars" in the literary world, this thing is not worthy of being published.
Kitagawa Hideya did not tell Kawaide Shizuko about this for the time being. He had to keep some cards in reserve.
In case "No Longer Human" dies out for unknown reasons, he will still have something to show for his continued collaboration with Kawaide Shobo.
Along with "Thor's Song of Thunder God", a literary review also became popular.
The signature is still that "Ichiro" who is quite capable of trolling. It's a bit strange to say that this is Kitagawa Hide's number one black fan.
This guy was the first one to criticize Kitagawa Hide when "Hear the Wind Sing" was not yet popular.
But when the sales war was at its most intense and the opportunities were obviously better, he suddenly disappeared.
Until recently, the pen name Ichiro has not appeared again.
Then a few days ago, he suddenly published a 1000-word literary review in the Asahi Shimbun.
The subject of the review is naturally Kitagawa Hide's currently serialized "Ball".
This time, Ichiro's purpose was very clear, which was to criticize "Kitagawa Hidekaze" who had been following the trend too much, and "Ball" who hugged twins left and right and had a distorted outlook on life.
He felt that "Ball" was several levels inferior to "Hear the Wind Sing", and the so-called "finding the theme" was nothing more than a worn-out routine in Western literature.
He declared that neither of Kitagawa Hide's two works would ever win the Akutagawa Prize, and being nominated was already a huge concession.
The writing quality of this manuscript is still quite good, but that's all.
However, several days had passed since that issue of Asahi Shimbun went on sale, and this literary review was still as popular as ever, and was able to survive thanks to Shizuko Kawaide's intervention.
This shows that there is a very powerful person behind the scenes, fanning the flames. Kitagawa Hide doesn't need to guess who it is.
Tsk, isn't it just a mere Akutagawa Prize? If you don't want it, then don't want it. There are so many awards in Japan, and at worst there are also awards abroad. Can you take them all?
He doesn't have any particular demand for the award now and doesn't care about it at all.
I still have more than 1 million yuan in debt, so it would be more practical to make more money.
This weekend morning, the sky was gloomy and there was continuous drizzle.
Kitagawa Hide has finally finished editing the entire book "No Longer Human", but has not had time to print it, so this will have to be postponed until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Because today is the funeral for Takuya Yanjing's family.
After turning off the computer, Kitagawa Hide stood up. My wife Yumeko, who was standing beside him, also had no smile on her face. She quietly helped him tidy up his black suit, and adjusted his tie and sleeves.
After everything was done, the two walked downstairs arm in arm, and Kitagawa Hide held a box of Takuya Iwao's belongings in his other hand.
At the end of the day, these things will be buried deep in the tomb along with his ashes.
When they arrived at the gate of Fengzhiguan Apartment, a familiar Mercedes-Benz MB100D AMG was parked on the side of the road. Seeing them coming down the stairs, driver Kinoshita and several bodyguards immediately ran over with umbrellas.
"Teacher Kitagawa, be careful of the rain!" driver Kinoshita shouted to him.
Kitagawa Hide was stunned for a moment, then asked in confusion: "Mr. Kinoshita, why are you here?"
"The president said that he didn't need a car today. After knowing that you were going to attend a funeral, he specially arranged for me to come and pick you up." Driver Kinoshita said respectfully, "This place is quite far from the Tokyo Funeral Home. The train and subway are not very convenient."
"Oh, that's trouble." Kitagawa Hide told my wife Yumeko about the matter of Kawaide's study. My wife Yumeko very much agreed with his job-hopping, but with her love-minded mind, she would probably wholeheartedly support whatever decision Kitagawa Hide made.
"Please get in the car." Driver Kinoshita trotted over and opened the door.
After getting on the bus, Kitagawa Hide couldn't help but sigh in his heart, it's really good to have money.
Who says money isn't everything?
If there is something in the world that money can't solve.
That's probably because the money is not enough!
The car started and drove towards the Tokyo Funeral Home.
In Japan, funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries are three independent institutions. They are not official units, but an industry that has been monopolized after being authorized by the government to certain consortiums.
For example, there are nine funeral homes in Tokyo, six of which are owned by Tokyo Hirozen Co., Ltd., and the controlling stake of Tokyo Hirozen is held by Japan Kosaido Co., Ltd.
Guangjitang's main business is printing, with annual sales of more than 200 billion yen. It is also one of the chaebols that control the Japanese economy.
In this country, the government is more like an organization, but what really controls the lifelines of various industries are the conglomerates that are like towering trees. They are intertwined, intermarried, and hold shares in each other, and have formed a huge interest group.
In war-torn Japan, the financial groups were afraid of the militarists who controlled the army;
In peacetime Japan, the conglomerates are afraid of the "Tenkaichipin" who control the pen and paper.
After all, he really has a strong appeal and is like a god in the eyes of the people.
It's 95 now, and it's no longer the era where you can just kill a celebrity and settle the matter.
With the rapid development of the Internet, the consortium had to put a shackle around its neck, but the "best in the world" writers became more powerful and more comfortable.
An hour later, the car arrived safely at the Kiritani Funeral Home, where the body of someone named Abe was later placed.
In the continuous drizzle, Rena Saito and her group, who had been waiting for a long time, stared in amazement as Kitagawa Hide and his companions got out of the luxury business car, with bodyguards and the driver helping to hold umbrellas!
"See, Higashino! This is a literary giant, this is the treatment that only the 'best in the world' can get!" Dangui Shirou whispered to Higashino Keigo who was still very depressed and decadent beside him, then stood up respectfully and bowed 90 degrees to Kitagawa Hide.
"Teacher Kitagawa, thank you for your hard work." Also bowing was Senhara Masato, who had been busy with various trivial matters these days. He strode over and forcibly took the relic box from Kitagawa Hide's hands.
"No, no, no, Chihara-san, you've worked hard." Kitagawa Hide quickly shook his head, then turned around and introduced Agatsuma Yumeko to everyone.
In front of him, Saito Rena was standing in the front row, followed by Higashino Keigo and Danki Shirou, who were holding the same umbrella. One looked dejected, and the other was wearing an awkward and ill-fitting suit, but both were carrying a lot of things in their hands.
For example, there are spirit tablets, portraits, paper money, black candles, etc. that need to be offered.
Masato Senhara drove the car, his hands were full of things, his face was full of vicissitudes, and he was capable in his work.
"Are these all your friends, Xiujun?" My wife Yumeko suddenly became socially anxious and asked in a low voice beside him.
Kitagawa Hide looked at them again.
Having attended a literary salon before, he was a little disgusted with socializing in the writer's circle.
But standing here, he suddenly felt relaxed.
It turns out that it’s not a problem of the circle.
He doesn't belong over there, he belongs here.
Belongs to the so-called "low class".
"Yes, they are all my very good friends!" He smiled and nodded to my wife Yumeko.
Thanks
Everyone's monthly ticket
100 Ways to Detect Men Lying Book Friends' Qidian Coins Reward
My father's 100 starting coins reward
(End of this chapter)